JERUSALEM (JTA) — Three Jewish Israelis in the apparent revenge murder of a Palestinian teen were indicted.
The indictment filed Thursday in Jerusalem District Court charged the still unnamed suspects with the murder and kidnapping of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, 16, of eastern Jerusalem, as well as other crimes.
The suspects’ names remain under a court-ordered gag order. They are identified as a 29-year-old man from the Adam settlement outside Jerusalem, and two 16-year-olds, from Beit Shemesh and Jerusalem.
Khdeir was kidnapped from outside a mosque in his Shuafat neighborhood early on the morning of July 2, hours after the funerals for three Israeli teens who were kidnapped and murdered, allegedly by Hamas members. Khdeir’s badly burned body was found hours later in the Jerusalem forest.
According to the indictment, Khdeir was beaten unconscious and then set afire while still alive.
The three suspects, who reportedly reenacted the crime, have confessed and said the slaying was in revenge for the kidnapping and murders of Gilad Shaar, Naftali Fraenkel and Eyal Yifrach. Khdeir’s murder touched off rioting in Arab areas throughout the country.
“The indictment that was filed details a grave and shocking act, perpetrated against a background of racism, against an innocent teenager,” Israel’s attorney general, Yehuda Weinstein, said in a Justice Ministry statement, according to reports. “The attorney general wishes to express his deep sorrow over this cruel act that counters all basic human morals.”
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